


To Be of Use

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mostly Gen, Periods, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 01:19:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12900906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: Let it never be said that Ignis doesn't know how to take care of the prince.ie Noct gets really bad periods and Ignis is best boyfriend





	To Be of Use

Ignis rapped his knuckles three times on the door, and then very quietly edged it open. “Highness?”

Often, he was summoned to the prince’s quarters, but upon hearing that the prince had taken ill and refused to see anyone, it served to make him ever more anxious to check in. Curled up in the Citadel’s lavish library had taken backseat; he had dropped his studying and hurried upstairs.

The only thing visible out of the prince was the mess of his black hair barely visible, curled into the blankets. He said nothing, but Ignis edged into the room, anyway. “Noct?”

A muffled noise, and the body beneath them shifted. Noctis peered out, pain lines etched around his eyes. Tears drying down his cheeks. Ignis moved forward to pluck a tissue from the box on the nightstand, stepping forward to wipe them away.

“Specs…”

“What’s wrong?”

Noctis opened his mouth as if to answer, and cringed instead. Ignis watched as he curled in on himself again, chin tucking into the blankets and eyes slamming shut.

Ignis clarified the question. “What hurts?”

Noct mumbled, and then raised his voice to repeat it before Ignis could ask. “Stomach.”

He pressed his hand to his forehead. “Have you eaten anything?”

“No…”

“You’re not warm, so there is that.”

“Yeah… no. Not… not sick.”

Ignis paused. Noct was pale and in tears and curled up in bed over stomach pain. He had to think for a moment. Count the days. And then, very softly, gave a noise of recognition. “Have you taken anything?”

Noctis shook his head slightly.

“We’ll start there, then.”

“I…” Noct swallowed. “I haven’t… been up. I… God, it hurts.” He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed out heavily. “I need… help.”

Very briefly, he curled his hand along the curve of Noctis’s jaw and let him press up into the touch. “And I’m here to help. Up you get, Noct. I’ll take care of it.”

It took a little coaxing, gentle and unassuming. The prince clung to the blankets until the very last moment, and then flung them away as if they were causing the pain themselves. The way that his eyes lingered on the dark red splotches on them, and the blood staining his boxers between his thighs, they may as well have been.

No, Ignis corrected, watching Noctis’s mouth twist into a grimace. They very much were.

“We’ll get you some ibuprofen. Do you want to have a bath?”

“No, I just–” Noctis swayed on his feet, a hand pressing to his stomach and the other grabbing for his thigh, half doubled over before Ignis could get a hand at his elbow to steady him. “Oh _fuck_. Fuck… fuck this body–”

“Slow and steady, Noct.” Ignis waited until he was able to straighten up, fingers kneading into his palms. “Are you lightheaded?”

“A little…”

“Even more slow and steady, then.” He offered his arm. “Your ibuprofen will help. I’ll get you the hot water bottle for your cramps.”

“Sorry. I’m useless, I can’t… can’t _deal_ with this–”

“What was it you said the last time?” Ignis interrupted softly. “That it was your week to sleep without our nagging at you?”

Noctis quirked a smile. “Uh huh…”

“Well, then, you’re surely excited for that.” Ignis smiled back, and was relieved when a little bit of the disgust seemed to further fall away from Noctis’s face.

He had known for some time that the prince was transgender. It had been years since he was told; he’d been with him since he was young and things had been explained very quickly to him when Noct had started to transition. In actuality, he was the one Noctis had told at first, but he had been young enough not to fully understand. Or perhaps he had. It had been very simple. _If Highness says he’s a boy, he’s a boy._

The bigger picture hadn’t started to form until they were a few years older, when Noctis had started to further question things about his gender, when he had told his father. There had been quite a ruckus from certain people when it had somehow gotten out beyond the Citadel, cries of the _princess_ wanting only the throne. Noctis had told them in no certain terms exactly what he’d thought of that.

Mostly, though, the support was overwhelming. Not that it mattered to Noct. He… struggled. The bad bouts of menstruation he went through monthly did not help. Ignis hated it in his own way, that there was little to do to help, imagining the physical and mental struggle Noct was going through. He couldn’t empathize, but he _could_ sympathize.

Not that _that_ probably mattered much to Noctis, either, but this wasn’t the first time the prince had called for him during his monthly visits.

“You’ve got it from here?” he asked when they’d hit the threshold of the bathroom. “You want me to get your things?”

Noct shook his head. “No. Just… give me… a minute, or something.”

“Right.” He left him at the doorway, but went to the medicine cabinet to set the ibuprofen on the countertop. “A full glass of water, if you can.”

“Yeah, because I need another reason to go to the bathroom all the time,” Noctis muttered, but there was a small, weary smile on his face as he stumbled past. “Thanks…”

“It’s nothing,” Ignis said reassuringly, even though it very well was not, and pulled the bathroom door closed to give Noct his privacy. He could strip the sheets and remake the bed before Noctis even left the bathroom, provided the blood hadn’t soaked through to the mattress. He had always been efficient at household chores; _this_ was something he _could_ do for him. All things considered, one of his easier tasks in his position of taking care of the prince.

The mattress had escaped the damage, and the sheets were fresh and clean when the bathroom door clicked open. Ignis straightened from tucking the blankets under and went to collect him, offering his hand again. “You took the ibuprofen?”

“Yeah, of course…” Noctis rubbed at his eyes, gingerly sliding back into bed. “Uh, thanks for…” His eyes flicked down to the clean sheets. “That.”

“Not a problem. I’ll fetch the hot water bottle. Did you put your shorts in the sink?”

A reluctant nod, as he settled carefully beneath the sheets. “It sucks, those are my favorite. Like it _knows_.”

It wasn’t funny, but Noct was sounding less bothered, so he allowed himself to smile. “I’ll do what I can to salvage them.”

“Thanks.”

“You don’t have to keep thanking me,” Ignis said, raising his voice to continue speaking from the bathroom. “It’s really no trouble.”

“It’s gross.”

“It’s no trouble,” he repeated.

“Yeah, but like you want to deal with it. You don’t even have a _girlfriend_ , and you still have to put up with it.”

“It doesn’t bother me.” He suspected from the look he received as he walked back in the room that Noctis didn’t believe him, but it was _true_. It was just blood. And if His Highness thought Ignis would be more perturbed about it _because_ Noctis was a man, well, it was just as simple now as it had been then: if he said he was a man, he was. So what if he bled every month? It meant nothing.

He wouldn’t convince him so easily, he was certain, but the principle remained; he was there for whatever Noctis needed, no matter the situation.

Noct did roll his eyes, but the look in them was a little softer beneath the pain, and he took the bottle to press up against his stomach. “Will you, uh. Can you stay? For awhile?”

That should have also been unspoken. But he didn’t mind reaffirming, soothing against Noctis’s worries. He would never mind that, either. “I’m not going anywhere. Let me know if you need anything else, Noct.”

“Got it.” Noctis closed his eyes. “Won’t say thank you again, since you told me not to.”

Ignis laughed, and cleared his throat. “Good.”

 

 

If he stayed in Noctis’s room for most of the afternoon, then, smoothing a hand along the prince’s back when the cramps played up, bringing him warm water to drink and sneaking him ill-advised pastries from the kitchen even before lunch, and if he pretended he didn’t see the anxiety writ large across Noctis’s face at any given interval, and let him curl into his side instead, no, it still didn’t bother him in the least.

**Author's Note:**

> ~~you guys have no idea how hard it was to not make this blatantly ignoct but i don't want to plaster a pairing onto everything because platonic is good TOO~~


End file.
